AFL rising stars of 2012 so far

 
Steve J Roar Rookie

By , 28 Jun 2012 Steve J is a Roar Rookie

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    A cursory glance at the nominees for the NAB Rising star award fro 2012 shows a good smattering of quality young players. Take a closer look at the list of nominees, however, and you will notice something very interesting.

    This season, every nominee, bar Daniel Talia, has come from a match involving one of GWS, Gold Coast or Melbourne. Either as the team from which the star has risen or as the opponent of the player on the day, as was the case with Motlop, Grimes, Beams, Carlisle, Golby, Wallis and Sinclair.

    Round 1: Claye Beams (Brisbane Lions)
    Round 2: Jeremy Cameron (GWS Giants)
    Round 3: Dylan Grimes (Richmond)
    Round 4: Mitch Wallis (Western Bulldogs)
    Round 5: Tomas Bugg (GWS Giants)
    Round 6: Steven Motlop (Geelong Cats)
    Round 7: Stephen Coniglio (GWS Giants)
    Round 8: Mitch Golby (Brisbane Lions)
    Round 9: Jake Carlisle (Essendon)
    Round 10: Dylan Shiel (GWS Giants)
    Round 11: Ben Sinclair (Collingwood)
    Round 12: Daniel Talia (Adelaide Crows)
    Round 13: Tony McDonald (Melbourne)

    Of course the logical explanation for this is that those teams, especially GWS and Gold Coast have had rich pickings from the draft in the past few years. Also that when teams come up against the bottom three, their kids have a bit more room to shine.

    Well then, what can be expected of the second half of the season as far as rising stars go? One would think the following players are knocking on the door – Toby Greene, Adam Treloar, Josh Caddy, Devon Smith, Brandon Ellis and Christian Howard.

    Interestingly Gold Coast have yet to have a nomination in the current year, but Josh Caddy however is one player on the cusp.

    Of these players only Ellis and Howard are from clubs other than the newbies. Against Howard is the fact that the Dogs don’t play any of GWS, Gold Coast or Melbourne for the rest of the year. But this aside, he has been playing some very good football of late.

    Unfortunately some very good players will miss out due to age constraints – Dayne Zorko, James Magner, Kyal Horsley, Tory Dickson, Dan Nicholson and Steven Morris to name a few.

    That GWS has had virtually 10-12 kids running out on the park each match has assisted them in getting game time and nominations. It has also assisted their opponent’s kids in getting nominations as well.

    Out of the current nominations I would think that Jeremy Cameron might be the current front runner. And it would be nice to see the award going to a key position prospect. A key forward hasn’t won since Nick Riewoldt back way back in 2002.